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Google has gone from being the go-to search engine to something people are paying to avoid entirely. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra chat with 404 Media co-founder Jason Koebler about his experience moving away from Google and towards Kagi, a $10 a month search engine without ads or data tracking. Funny enough, Kagi is still relying on Google’s index, so it’s a lot like using that site before the onslaught of ads, sponsored posts and AI results. Also, we discuss the company’s lies around Chrome’s incognito mode, as well as the news that it would be deleting user data collected in that mode. (Be sure to check out the 404 Media podcast too!)

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!

Topics

Why Jason Koebler moved from Google to Kagi’s paid search engine – 0:45

Google says it will destroy data collected from users using Incognito mode – 15:01

Gurman report: Apple is working on personal home robots – 24:55

Amazon just walked out on its self check-out tech – 30:43

FCC set to vote to restore Net Neutrality – 43:00

Apple adds Spatial Personas to make the Vision Pro experience less lonely – 45:09

Proposed California state law would give tech workers the “right to disconnect” – 47:17

Tekken director responds to fighting game fans’ request for a Waffle House stage – 49:57

Around Engadget – 51:22

Working on – 54:31

Pop culture picks – 59:13

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Credits 

Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guest: Jason Koebler
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-google-search-kagi-incognito-123049753.html?src=rss 

Over the years, Engadget has been the target of a common SEO scam, wherein someone claims ownership of an image and demands a link bank to a particular website. A lot of other websites would tell you the same thing, but now the scammers are making their fake DMCA takedown notices and threats of legal action look more legit with the help of easily accessible AI tools. 

According to a report by 404Media, the publisher of the website Tedium received a “copyright infringement notice” via email from a law firm called Commonwealth Legal last week. Like older, similar attempts at duping the recipient, the sender said they’re reaching out “in relation to an image” connected to their client. In this case, the sender demanded the addition of a “visible and clickable link” to a website called “tech4gods” underneath the photo that was allegedly stolen. 

Since Tedium actually used a photo from a royalty-free provider, the publisher looked into the demand, found the law firm’s website, and upon closer inspection, realized that the images of its lawyers were generated by AI. As 404Media notes, the images of the lawyers had vacant looks in the eyes that’s commonly seen in photos created by AI tools. If you do a reverse image search on them, you’ll get results from a website with the URL generated.photos, which uses artificial intelligence to make “unique, worry-free model photos… from scratch.” The publisher also found that the law firm’s listed address that’s supposed to be on the fourth floor of a building points to a one-floor structure on Google Street View. The owner of tech4gods said he had nothing to do with the scam but admitted that he used to buy backlinks for his website. 

This is but one example of how bad actors can use AI tools to fool and scam people, and we have to be more vigilant as instances like this will just likely keep on growing. Reverse image search engines are your friend, but they may not be infallible and may not always help. Deepfakes, for instance, have become a big problem in recent years, as bad actors continue to use them to create convincing videos and audio not just to scam people, but also to spread misinformation online. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/an-old-seo-scam-has-a-new-ai-generated-face-100045758.html?src=rss 

Say goodbye to your best friend’s neighbor’s great aunt’s Disney+ account. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an interview with CNBC that the streamer is cracking down on password sharing worldwide this summer. The company enacted the same restrictions for Canadian subscribers last fall.

The move is hardly a surprise, as Disney’s CFO Hugh Johnston shared the plan during an earnings call in February. “Paid sharing is an opportunity for us. It’s one that our competitor is obviously taking advantage of, and one that sits in front of us. We’ve got some very specific actions that we’re taking in the next couple of months.” Disney-owned Hulu started its own crackdown on password sharing on March 14, and both streamers’ terms of service explicitly ban people from using other customers’ login information (Though its latest announcement indicates Disney is actually ready to enforce it). 

Streamers across the lineup are restricting password sharing, and it seems to be working — for them, not us. According to analytics firm Antenna, Netflix’s United States signups increased by 102 percent during the first four days after the rule went into effect, compared to the 60 days prior. There were an average of 73,000 new signups daily, far outpacing cancelations. Max will also start restricting sharing this year, fully cracking down in 2025.  

Disney+ will start its clampdown in some countries come June, expanding to a second wave of countries in September. It’s unclear as of now which group the US is in, but Disney will likely provide a breakdown when the dates get closer. Disney+ currently costs $8 monthly with ads and $14 monthly for ad-free viewing. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-is-also-cracking-down-on-password-sharing-103010857.html?src=rss 

Over 700 people at Apple have recently lost their jobs, according to the latest WARN report posted by the Employment Development Department of California (EDD). Most of the people who were laid off worked at Apple’s offices in Santa Clara, with 371 of them coming from the company location that primarily dealt with the company’s now-defunct electric vehicle project. Under California law, companies are required to file a report with the EDD for each location affected by layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) program. 

Eight Apple locations in Santa Clara were hit by layoffs, including the main car office, though one of them worked on its in-house MicroLED display project that was reportedly scrapped in March due to costs and technical difficulties. The company was hoping to produce its own screens for iPhones, Macs and its smartwatches, but that clearly isn’t happening anytime soon. 

Apple’s original car ambitions were to build a fully autonomous vehicle without pedals and a steering wheel, until it decided to develop an electric vehicle instead. A previous Bloomberg report said Apple canceled the initiative internally called “Project Titan” after investing billions of dollars and a decade into it. The employees who were developing the vehicle were given the chance to transfer to Apple’s other divisions, including its teams that are reportedly working on artificial intelligence and home robotics. But based on Apple’s WARN report, it wasn’t able to re-integrate everyone into the company. 

Apple is believed to be in the very early stages of developing personal robotics for people’s homes. One of the machines that’s currently a work-in-progress is a robot that follows people around, while the other is a table-top device that uses a robot to move a display around, according to another Bloomberg report. The company’s work on personal robotics is part of its efforts, which also include the Vision Pro, to find new sources of revenue. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-cuts-over-700-jobs-following-its-car-and-display-project-closures-061524777.html?src=rss 

YouTube is hyping its exclusive Coachella streaming coverage, which starts next week. The headlining feature is the platform’s multiview experience (already familiar to sports fans) for the two-weekend festival. Our question from this announcement is, who wants to watch several different artists’ sets at the same time — when you can only listen to one?

The multiview experience will let you watch up to four stages simultaneously, letting you pick which one to hear: exactly how multiview works for March Madness, NFL games or any other sporting event. Here’s how YouTube pitches the feature: “Two of your favorite bands playing on different stages at the same time? No problem, multiview will have you and your friends covered to catch both sets at the same time via the YouTube app on TV at no additional cost.”

Maybe I’m of the wrong generation and have too long of an attention span, but who wants to watch an artist’s set without hearing it? That’s what will happen to the three stages you aren’t listening to. Wouldn’t it be better to… watch the one you’re hearing? And then catch up on the others on-demand when you can listen to them as well?

Sports multiview makes sense because there are scores to track and timeouts, halftimes and blowouts to divert your attention to another game. You don’t need to hear an NBA game to keep an eye on the ball. (Depending on the commentators, you may prefer not to listen to it.) It’s primarily a visual experience; the audio is secondary.

But music, even when played live with all the light shows, fog machines and dancing accompanying it, is still an auditory experience first and foremost. If multiple artists you like play at once, you still can’t (and wouldn’t want to) hear more than one simultaneously. In YouTube’s multiview, you pick one stage to hear and the rest to… watch them sing and dance on mute in a little box alongside two other muted performances. Yay?

It sounds like a solution looking for a problem — YouTube applying its existing tech (which, to be fair, works very well with sports) to a music festival. Never mind that it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Perplexed rants aside, YouTube will have six livestream feeds to bounce between (but, again, only four at once in multiview). That includes Sonora for the first weekend and Yuma for the second. This year’s headliners include Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, No Doubt and Tyler, the Creator.

Between sets, YouTube will stream “special editorial content” from the artists onsite. Each day after the night’s final set, YouTube’s Coachella channel will repeat that day’s sets until the livestream returns the next day. That sounds like a better way to catch up on the sets you didn’t see live.

The event takes place in Indio, California, about 130 miles east of LA, from April 12 to 14 and April 19 to 21. You can tune in on YouTube’s Coachella channel.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/who-exactly-is-youtubes-multicam-coachella-stream-for-183744741.html?src=rss